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SHINOZUKA TOAST OF JAPAN AFTER DAKAR VICTORY

Kenjiro Shinozuka finished the last stage of the 1997 TOTAL DAKAR Rally in
second fastest time to confirm his victory and to go into the record books
as the first Japanese winner of this great adventure.  He and his
Mitsubishi team-mates have dominated the event and have completed a clean
sweep of the top four places.  Since their only real rival Jean-Louis
Schlesser retired during the first week, the Mitsubishis have been
unchallenged and the threat of 'team orders' has hung over the event.  To
their credit, the drivers battled out the lead until the latter stages of
the rally, when team manager Ullrich Brehmer took the decision to call it a
halt, with Shinozuka nominated as the team's crown prince.

Experience of the Dakar counted for everything this year as Mitsubishi
proved with a faultless display of rallying.  As the other works teams
struggled in the incredible temperatures, the Pajeros continued their
relentless march to victory.  Any one of the three top Mitsubishi drivers
could have won as they kept up their pace and amazingly were never more
than fifteen minutes apart.  Eventually, the importance of the event to the
Japanese manufacturer outweighed the sporting aspects and the last few days
were dedicated to ensuring Shinozuka's victory.  The happy driver, who will
be fifty next year said, "It's a great feeling to win the Dakar at last.  I
have participated 12 times and every year I wanted to win.  Now it is a
dream come true.  The Dakar is the most popular motor sport event in Japan
and this result is good for me and good for Mitsubishi.  I really enjoyed
driving the T2 Pajero."

Under a new set of rules from organisers TSO, this year's Dakar had a new
route and a new look.  This has made the whole event more open and although
Mitsubishi dominated the overall results, the different number of stage
winners bears witness to the new spirit of the event.  For the first four
days, the stage winners and the overall leaders were different and in all,
no less than eight different drivers won a stage on this 19th running of
the Dakar.  In the end, the reliability of the Mitsubishi Pajeros proved
too much for the opposition and they deserved their commanding results.

On the event itself, it was Jean-Pierre Fontenay who drew first blood,
winning the opening stage.  The next three stages saw a new stage winner
and new leader each day.  Jean-Louis Schlesser went ahead on day two in his
buggy, while it was Shinozuka's turn on the third leg.  Bruno Saby won leg
four to become the new leader and then achieved something none of the
others had - he stayed in the lead the following day!

It was on the sixth leg of the event that the Mitsubishi team was able to
relax a little, with Jean-Louis Schlesser rolling his SEAT-engined buggy
into retirement.  From that point on, Mitsubishi took control and never
looked back.  While the three leading Pajeros took more and more time out
of their opposition, the latter suffered from a number of different
problems and never troubled the leaders.

Behind the top four, Schlesser's team-mate Jutta Kleinschmidt fulfilled her
ambition to finish in the top five.  She lost time early on in the event
after getting lost and steadily made her way up the field thereafter.
Moreover, she became the first woman ever to win a stage on the Dakar,
repeating the feat on today's spectator special around the Pink Lake.  To
this historic feat she added the T3 category as well as the two wheel drive
class.

Among the other leading teams, Toyota and SsangYong did not have as long to
prepare as they would have liked. Toyota's return to the Dakar was plagued
by teething problems and but unfortunately neither Philippe Wambergue is in
fifteenth overall nor Jean-Jacques Ratet managed to finish.  Both cars
suffered overheating problems and eventually the engines cried enough.
Meanwhile, SsangYong's first serious attempt on the Dakar did not end as
they would have liked.  Both Patrick Tambay and Jerome Riviere retired
early on in the event after suffering their second broken wishbones in two
days.

In the Nissan camp, Salvador Servia upheld the Japanese manufacturer's
honour by finishing sixth.  His team-mate Thierry Delavergne, a leading
fancy for this event after winning the T2 class of this and the World Cup
last year, retired after an engine failure on the fifth leg.  Another
Nissan, that of Italian Maurizio Traglio was going well early on before
crashing out on the eleventh stage.

Among the class winners Jean-Pierre Strugo, who was also one of the eight
stage winners, took the T3 four wheel drive category.  In the 'standard' T1
class, Portugal's Carlos Souza was celebrating his victory tonight after
finishing tenth overall.  Just behind were Bruno Lhotellerie and Miguel
Prieto, who won the Marathon class in his Mitsubishi.  The ladies class was
won by Portugal's Joana Lemos, co-driven by Carine Duret from France.

Ex-Formula 1 star Philippe Alliot eventually finished 21st in his Nissan
after getting stuck in the dunes with a broken rear axle on his T1 Nissan.
Forced to wait for his service crew to arrive, the mechanics amazing
completed the job in under an hour.  Henri Pescarolo meanwhile finished
26th,after numerous minor problems including a holed radiator.  Belgium's
singing star Koen Wauters finished 63rd in his Toyota.

In the trucks there was even more reason for the Japanese to celebrate
after the Hino team completed a clean sweep of the podium places.  The
Austrian pair of Reif and Deinhofer led from the third stage and were never
headed.  Their most fancied challengers, the Czech Tatras were both forced
to retire with mechanical problems.

Of the 136 car and truck starters, 83 made it through to the end and all
deserve a round of applause.  Among the finishers were the British pair of
Dick Partridge and Keith Parker, the first Britons to finish the event for
more than a decade.  They portray the real spirit of the event, taking on
the African tracks with no support at all.  Despite a roll, broken shock
absorbers and finally a broken rear axle, they brought their Isuzu home in
76th place.

Competitors are now looking forward to the prize-giving ceremony tonight
and the chance to catch up on some lost sleep.  Preparations are already
underway for the 20th Dakar next year, which promises to be even more open
than this year.